Baroness Amos: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Since my last Written Statement in November 2005, there has been excellent progress on providing debt relief for poor countries.
	Under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) proposed by the G8 in 2005, the IMF cancelled 100 per cent debt stock for 20 HIPC countries (15 of which are African) in January 2006 and for another, Cameroon, since. The MDRI has now been approved by the World Bank and African Development Bank. In addition to the IMF debt stock cancellation, 100 per cent of debt stock,debt owed by 19 countries at the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank, has been cancelled. We expect similar cancellationfor 15 countries at the African Development Fund (AfDF) of the African Development Bank soon, backdated to 1 January 2006. Overall, $36 billion (approximately £20 billion) will then have been cancelled. Up to 24 other countries will also receive debt stock cancellation when they reach the required standards, bringing the total value of cancellations under the MDRI to over $50 billion. Around$1 billion a year will be freed up for spending on poverty reduction in 2007, rising to $1.7 billion by 2010. All poor countries borrowing from IDA and the AfDF will benefit from the increased donor resources provided to IDA and AfDF under the MDRI to compensate for the foregone debt flows.
	In addition to MDRI, steady progress has also been made in implementing the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, with eligibility extended to more countries this year. Cameroon completed the initiative in May, becoming the 19th country to receive irrevocable debt relief, and the Republic of Congo has begun to receive interim relief. A further 10 countries also receive interim relief and 14 others remain eligible for debt relief when they reach the required standards. The UK continues to meet and exceed our commitments under HIPC, offering 100 per cent cancellation of bilateraldebts to countries at HIPC completion point. Over £100 million worth of UK Export Credit Guarantee Department and CDC debts held by Cameroon have now been cancelled. Other Paris Club (government creditors) members have also agreed extensive debt stock cancellation for Cameroon. Three other countries, Malawi, São Tomé and Príncipe and Sierra Leone, are on course to complete the HIPC process by the end of the year. The UK remains the second largest bilateral contributor to the HIPC Trust Fund, which helps multilateral organisations deliver their HIPC assistance in a timely manner.
	The largest ever debt relief deal by the Paris Club for an African country, Nigeria, has now been concluded. The deal resolved 100 per cent of Nigeria's debts to Paris Club government creditors, with $18 billion of debt written off. Nigeria used $12.4 billion of its oil windfall to buy back the remaining debt. The UK cancelled debts worth$2.85 billion as part of the deal. We have also worked hard to ensure savings will be used to reduce poverty—the deal will free up US$1 billion a year for Nigeria to spend on employing an extra 120,000 teachers, putting 3.5 million children into school, and other health, education and social investments.
	The UK also supports debt relief for all poor countries—not just those classed as HIPCs—that can use the debt service savings to make progress towards the millennium development goals. We therefore continue to offer debt relief (reimbursements of10 per cent of debt service to the IDA and the AfDF) to other qualifying countries under the UK Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. Two new countries, Cape Verde and Georgia, recently qualified for this assistance, bringing the total number of recipients to six: Armenia, Cape Verde, Georgia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
	Additional debt relief has also been granted to the Government of Jamaica for a further year under the Commonwealth Debt Initiative (CDI). This will mean that Jamaica will not repay £5.63 million worth of official debt to the UK, representing payments that were due in the financial year 2006-07. Each year we also look at providing relief under CDI for Belize. In February this year a further £1.21 million of debt relief for Belize was granted to use on reform programmes for poverty alleviation.

Baroness Andrews: My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
	Further steps in delivering our commitment to help communities tackle bad landlords and long-term abandoned, empty properties come into force tomorrow.
	We continue to encourage councils to work with residents and landlords to ensure that local communities are not being blighted by the actions of a minority. We also want to see a thriving private rented sector offering good quality and well managed homes.
	We have already required councils to implement a national licensing scheme for houses in multiple occupation and to consider the benefit of discretionary licensing in their locality. As part of the implementation of provisions in Sections 72 and 95 of the Housing Act 2004, from tomorrow councils will be able to prosecute landlords or other persons managing or in control of licensable houses in multiple occupation who have failed to apply for their licence. Operating without a licence is a criminal offence and can result in a fine of up to £20,000. Tenants and councils will also have the opportunity of recovering any rent or housing benefit paid over the previous 12 months.
	Also from tomorrow councils will be able to apply to residential property tribunals for an interim empty-dwelling management order on long-term abandoned or derelict properties. Some 300,000 private-sector homes in Britain have been empty for over six months and many lie empty and abandoned for years at a time, causing considerable distress for neighbours and local communities. Empty-dwelling management orders can be granted only where there is no reasonable prospect of it being occupied and where other routes have been tried to work with the property owner to bring it back into use. Exceptions are in place to protect owners who have good reason to keep their dwelling unoccupied, for example temporary absence, second homes, properties on the market and inherited properties, which are exempt for a further six months after grant of representation (probate) is obtained. The tribunal must also consider the effect the order would have on the rights of the property owner and take into account the interests of the community.
	The department will tomorrow also publish guidance to local authorities on the use of empty-dwelling management orders on the departmental website at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1501339, and has previously published an advisory booklet for property owners.

Lord Rooker: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State (David Miliband) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
	In my Oral Statement of 22 June, I promised to keep the House informed of the Rural Payment Agency's (RPA) progress in making payments under the 2005 single payment scheme (SPS). I can report now on the position at the end of the EU regulatory payment window on 30 June.
	As in previous years, with the old CAP schemes, the total amount to be paid by the RPA under the 2005 SPS will not be known for certain until the last claim is completely validated. However, the latest estimateputs the figure at £1.515 billion, of which over£1.438 billion (94.9 per cent) was paid by 30 June. Some 91,720 claimants had received a full payment and a further 16,168 had received a partial payment and are awaiting their top-up. The combined total of 107,888 represents over 92 per cent of the revised estimated total claimant population entitled to a payment of 116,474, which now takes account of merged multiple claims from the same business and discounts duplicate claims, voluntary withdrawals and those where the claim was only to establish entitlements and not claim payment against them.
	Of the estimated 8,500 claimants who have yet to receive a payment, approximately 460 have a claim value of more than €1,000. Some of these are in a category that it is not possible to pay at present, for example because the RPA is awaiting information from claimants. However, the majority require further action from the RPA and those cases will remain the agency's number one priority to resolve as quickly as possible.
	Discussions are now under way with the devolved Administrations to determine whether, for the UK as a whole, sufficient payments have been made to avoid triggering the normal EU rules on withholding EU funding of payments after the end of the 30 June payment window. Those rules allow for 4 per cent of value payments made before the end of the window to be made after it with full EU funding. After that, a sliding scale of reductions applies, depending on timing, to payments after the 4 per cent threshold has been exhausted. The indications are that the UK is likely to have paid between 95 per cent and 96 per cent of payments by 30 June. If this is confirmed, we will, as previously indicated, have further discussions with the European Commission about the application of the payment reduction rules.
	In the mean time, the RPA will continue to pay the remaining claims and progress work under the 2006 scheme in line with my 22 June Statement.